What Is OVP and Why Is It So Damn Successful?
A PROVEN PROCESS FOR BUILDING BRANDS, EARNING TRUST, AND DELIVERING RESULTS
“Brand building.” “Brand development.” “Branding.” Whatever you call it, it’s an exercise that has been mired in both mystery and misunderstanding since the days of Madison Avenue. It’s part science, part art. It’s as cold and calculated as it is biased and subjective. And the more it gets mythologized in scenes from Mad Men or satirized in primetime sitcoms, the more muddled it becomes. This is where OVP stands out and how it has withstood the test of time.
Let’s start with the obvious. What is OVP? The One Voice Program℠ is our proprietary methodology for effective brand-building, consisting of five phases:
- Phase 1: Discover all the actionable insights that will influence project success.
- Phase 2: Define the core strategy, design, and messaging elements of the brand identity.
- Phase 3: Create the “big idea” that will inspire and feed all communications activities.
- Phase 4: Plan the go-to-market (GTM) strategy and tactics for program launch.
- Phase 5: Produce all deliverables for program launch.
For 25 years, Adcetera, a leading Houston brand agency, has used this process to help companies improve their image, reposition their brand, build a better brand strategy, turn a product into a brand, refresh an existing brand, craft a better brand narrative, create a new registered trademark or service mark, design or redesign a logo, develop a visual identity, create new sub-brands, create an entire product naming system, and all things in between.
And OVP is scalable because every client is unique and has different brand opportunities. In the quarter-century we’ve been running the program, no two brand engagements have followed the exact same course. And when we guide our clients through this process, we’ve been able to meet and exceed every one of their brand development goals. If there’s a secret to this long-lasting success, it’s the phased approach of the program. Every phase is distinct — and has a story to tell.
Phase 1: Discover
One of my favorite things about phase one is that it’s the step clients most often want to skip yet always look back on fondly. It’s easy to understand the urge to skip ahead. Once you’ve made the decision to make a big brand-level move, you want to get right to work.
The discovery phase isn’t about delaying that work; it’s about setting it up for success. It’s in this phase that we better understand our client’s pain points, their dreams, their stakes, the obstacles in their path, what’s hurting or helping them, etc. It’s about entrenching ourselves into their world, and we do this through a variety of methods, from tailored information-gathering sessions to guided workshops to formal market research.
Many times, we’ve uncovered critical insights our client wasn’t aware of purely through conversation — like the time we helped a client realize their recent merger had provided them with a unique branding opportunity.
Most importantly, every discovery phase ends with an executive summary session that ensures all decision-making (and decision-influencing) parties are fully aware and fully aligned on what the end of the rainbow looks like.
Phase 2: Define
This is typically the most important phase of any brand-building effort. It’s where we decide and develop every element of a brand’s identity. This can include a brand’s name, how it’s positioned, its core messaging, its logo, its color palette, its design language, etc. Not every brand will need to create or redefine all these elements, but there is one element that most brands tend to neglect. Brand messaging, or core messaging, is the foundational content by which a brand’s personality, strengths, differentiation, and overall story are made concrete. So why is it the most neglected? Because it’s the most misunderstood.
What’s the difference between brand values and a value proposition? How do you use a positioning statement? What actually is a brand archetype? This is where OVP shines. It builds messaging one layer at a time, with external built on top of internal messaging. It ensures all messaging has a clear throughline — a singular voice. And the messaging itself is delivered with a clear understanding of its purpose and its utility.
There have been instances where clients came into an OVP process as brand messaging skeptics and became the strongest proponents once they experienced the difference it can make — like the time we helped a client realize their teams weren’t aligned because they hadn’t properly defined their positioning, or the time we completely revamped a company’s brand image without changing their logo.
But regardless of what messaging was or wasn’t developed, every client that has been through OVP has, without fail, come out of phase two with a much better sense of what their brand is — and what it needs to become.
Phase 3: Create
Phase three is where the fun starts. Scripts are fun. Beautiful designs with clever headlines are fun. Storyboards and slick animations and video shoots are really fun. This is, after all, why clients seek out brand and marketing agencies, to see all that purposeful creativity brought to life. But they don’t just want fun. They want to be sure all those beautifully designed ads, videos, web pages, and social graphics look like they’re part of the same campaign, carry the same core message, and are tied to the same brand following the same brand strategy.
Once again, OVP earns its name. Before designing a single deliverable, we first create “the big idea” or campaign concept, a creative canvas that establishes the look, the tone, and the creative direction of the campaign. These campaign concepts are explicit enough to be clearly understood but also flexible enough to be turned easily into any type of creative asset.
We have found that this preliminary step leads to more cohesive and effective campaigns. Not only that, it allows clients to get in on the “ground floor” and play a bigger role in crafting the idea that will become the basis of their campaign — like the time the shape of our client’s products influenced the development of their tagline and campaign theme.
Phase 4: Plan
Another “fun” wrinkle within OVP is that we don’t save media strategy and planning for last. In fact, phase four is anything but an afterthought, because this is when we take a 30,000-foot view of the program as a whole and, with our clients, decide the role media needs to play in achieving the brand’s objectives.
Together, we determine the internal and external audiences, launch timeframes, how the market and competition will react, and the specific performance metrics they’re looking for: net promoter score, ROAS, heads in beds, etc. Then we devise a detailed strategy for addressing these goals and issues, including channels, tactics, budgets, media schedules, and production timeframes. We discuss and debate the merits of every single recommended channel, tactic, and media expenditure so that once we get to phase five, everyone is aligned to the deliverables and their priorities.
This hyper-informed approach to media strategy means we can make stronger recommendations for and against certain channels and tactics, which our clients find impressive, and sometimes even surprising — like the time we created publicity around a product by launching it into space.
Phase 5: Produce
Here, the OVP journey culminates in tangible results. Building on the decisions and clarity from prior phases allows for focused execution. Our integrated teams bring the brand vision, core message, and “big idea” to life across all required assets. Guided by the GTM plan, we write, design, code, and animate with purpose.
This phase involves collaborative client reviews for fine-tuning and stringent internal quality assurance to guarantee brand consistency and strategic alignment. Every deliverable is purposefully built to integrate seamlessly into the launch and measurement strategy mapped out in Phase 4, ensuring maximum effect from day one. It’s the final, crucial step where meticulous planning becomes powerful, market-ready brand communication.
And now, your brand is ready for the world!
More Than a Method. A Trust-Building Journey.
Earlier, I highlighted the phased approach as the secret to OVP’s success. And while the phases are critically important, they serve an even deeper purpose: building trust. Brand-building efforts are deeply personal, almost to the point of feeling invasive. Think about it: One company allows another company to come in and make sweeping changes to their core identity. Many brand engagements fail simply because clients don’t have enough belief in their brand agency’s recommendations.
It all comes back to trust. The phases of OVP aren’t just designed to build layer upon layer of brand understanding, strategy, and communication; they’re designed to build confidence and trust. And when brand trust is built the right way, it’s impossible to break.
Whether you’re questioning if your brand is living up to its potential or you’re ready to make a bold move and need a proven partner you can implicitly trust, Adcetera is here to guide you. Let our Brand Strategy team show you how the OVP process builds unwavering confidence alongside meaningful results. Reach out today to schedule an exploratory conversation about achieving your brand ambitions.